East Coast premiere of Annette Bening film about distance swimmer Diana Nyad
Nyad, a new drama from Netflix that stars Annette Bening as well as Jodie Foster, will open the Hamptons International Film Festival.
Variety reports that Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s Nyad will be the opening night film of the Hamptons International Film Festival. The event will take place on October 5, according to HamptonsFilm, which runs the festival.
The event will be the East Coast premiere of the Netflix feature, which is touted as one of the streamer’s awards season hopefuls, boasting Oscar-nominee Annette Bening and Oscar-winner Jodie Foster.
The film details the notorious quest by American marathon swimmer Diana Nyad, who is played by Bening, to complete a 53-hour, 110-mile swim from Cuba to Florida—without a shark cage. Nyad became the first person to complete the long-distance swim from Cuba to the U.S. drawing widespread praise and media coverage, and a message of congratulations from then-president Barack Obama on Twitter. Nyad started her journey in Havana and arrived in Key West, Fla., about 53 hours later. It was the 64-year-old American’s fifth attempt at the 110-mile feat.
Nyad has said a driving force in her career as an endurance swimmer was her anger about the sexual abuse she experienced as a child. Nyad has spoken publicly about this issue, as well as coming out as a lesbian in 1999. Bening previously played a lesbian in the acclaimed 2010 film The Kids Are All Right.
